Slip-N-Slide CEO Talks Split W/ Trick Daddy

As CEO of Slip-N-Slide Records, Miami music executive Ted Lucas has played an active role in the careers of Trick Daddy, Trina, Rick Ross and Plies. In this exclusive Lucas opens up about how he got in the game, addresses the rumored strife with Trick Daddy and reveals what's next for the label.

His accomplishments as a music industry executive have won him "Major Player in the Game" accolades from VIBE and a spot in the The Source Magazine's Power 30, but Lucas revealed to SOHH that running a label wasn't initially his intention. In fact, he credits Trick Daddy and his brother, Hollywood for pushing him in the right direction.

"Hollywood was the first one to really enter us into the music business," Lucas told SOHH. "I was a concert promoter… After a couple different concerts at the big arenas didn't go the way I planned, I changed my mind and said I'd rather be the one that is getting paid at the end of the night, instead of the one taking that big risk if the arena is not packed. I graduated from being a concert promoter and with the help of Trick's brother, Hollywood, decided to run my own record company."

Nearly 15 years after starting Slip-N-Slide, Lucas is currently embroiled in a very public parting of ways with one of the label's greatest assets – Trick Daddy. Lucas confirmed to SOHH that rumors of Trick's discontent at the label are true, and although Trick is a Slip-N-Slide artist at the present moment, they are currently working out the details of his departure.

"As of today (October 3) he is still signed to Slip-N-Slide," Lucas said. "He has asked to be released from the label. We are in the process of making that decision; most likely Trick will no longer be on Slip N Slide going forward."

According to Lucas the root of Trick's problem stems from his relationship with their parent label, Atlantic Records.

"He wasn't happy with how his last project went with Atlantic records and that caused a little problem between me and him, because he felt I should have did some things that would have prevented the way it went out with Atlantic," Lucas explained. "His last album didn't do as well as previous albums did but I think Trick Daddy still has a great future. He is one of the best rappers to come out of the South period."

The struggle with Trick Daddy has weighed heavily on the executive, who shares a bond with his artist that approaches familial.

"It ain't something easy," Lucas said of their troubles. "Trick Daddy is not just an artist, that's my brother. I look at him as one of the first ones that helped me get off the streets. I didn't want to be CEO of a record company really, it was just something God had planned to go that way. Sometimes men grow up and have to go their separate ways. If that's the decision that's made I understand that and regardless of the decision that is made I'm going to support him."

Even short a major player, Slip-N-Slide is promising to deliver big in the coming months. The label continues to promote Plies' debut album The Real Testament which has earned him a BET Hip-Hop Award nomination. Lucas also revealed that Rick Ross is working to complete his album Trilla in preparation for a December 18 release date and that Trina plans to drop her next project at the top of 2008 in February.